


Tenderness

by Costellos



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Interspecies Relationship(s), Post-Sburb/Sgrub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-27
Updated: 2013-07-27
Packaged: 2017-12-21 08:20:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/898059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Costellos/pseuds/Costellos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Cronus realizes that it’s nice having someone who actually cares about him—even if it means having to put off sex for tending to his fucked up gills instead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tenderness

**Author's Note:**

> Got a request for Roxy taking care of Cronus and his dried out gills and I couldn't possibly say no.

Even though it's sort of taboo, having your gills touched and played with is something that usually gets you all the more riled up, but this time when Roxy gently rakes her fingers down your clothed sides you jump and accidentally let out a small warning growl that is definitely not appropriate for anyone other than a kismesis to hear.

"Whoa, what the hell was up with that?" she asks, her hands hovering awkwardly at your waist. "You never made that sound before—I didn't hurt you, did I?"

You follow her up the bed on your knees when she tries to scoot back to give you some space, chewing the inside of your cheek to keep quiet as your t-shirt chafes uncomfortably against your gills. _I'd be alright if you would just sit still_ is what you want to tell her, but you bite your tongue.

"Nah, don't worry about me, Roxy. You didn't do anything," you tell her, then glance down at the noticeable bulge in your jeans and then back up at her with a raised brow and smirk. "Well I mean, besides _this_ , that is."

"Then how come your fins are doing the angry thing?"

"The angry wha—" You turn to look in the dresser mirror to see what she's talking about; sure enough they're flared wide as can be and flushed with your royal color. Now aware of your body betraying you, you try and get them to go back to their normal state. "I'm not mad. You just caught me by surprise is all."

"Are you sure? Because that didn't—"

"Yes, yes, I'm _sure_. Now c'mon," You cut her off and kiss up her jawline, reaching around to set to work on unclasping her bra. You don't want to waste any longer with this pointless worrying. It'd been far too long since you'd had Roxy all alone to yourself and you fully intended to make up for all those lost opportunities. "Less talk, more kissing."

She looks at you for a second, the one she gives you when she's trying to gauge just how bad of an idea listening to you might actually be, before giving in and complying with your wishes. You silently thank the gods when she decides to wrap her arms around your neck this time because it doesn't hurt as much. She arches into the kiss with a moan when you skim your blunted nails up her bare back.

Just when you're about to (finally) unclasp her bra, her hands fall and slide over your sides again and you wince and pull away. Roxy sighs and sits up straight.

"Alright, seriously, what's wrong? Is it your gills?" She goes to grab the hem of your shirt and you lean out of reach. The thought of her peeling it up and over your gills scares the shit out of you. " _Cronus_ —"

"I told you already, I'm _fine_ , okay? They're just a little tender is all."

"We ain't gettin' freaky if every time I touch you you're gonna be in pain, Crocakes," she sighs and paps your cheek. "C'mon, take your shirt off and let me see what's wrong."

"What? No, just leave my shirt on. We can still fu—"

"Shirt. Off."

You huff indignantly and cross your arms over your chest in defiance. When it's clear you're not going to do it, Roxy bypasses your little fit completely without a thought and does it herself.

You squeeze your eyes shut as she peels your shirt off, the cotton rubbing upwards in a way that makes your back go rigid from the burn. When she clears it up over your arms and your horns, you hear her gasp.

" _Oh my god_."

You open one eye to look down and peek at her reaction. Roxy's staring at your gills in horror; the filaments are dry and the skin around them is cracked and chafed, and to make matters worse the spaces in-between each one along your sides are purple and slightly inflamed. They must have gotten worse because you don't remember them being that bad three days ago.

"Cronus, how did this _happen_?"

You shrug and look away. "I guess the public water from the taps just isn't the same as what's in the ocean. Kind of bothers my gills," It'd been a while since the last time you'd gotten the chance to take a dip in the sea and get some salt in your system since you live a ways from the water.

"How come you didn't tell me?"

"Well they've really only been doing this for the past couple of weeks," You motion to your gills. "And if we're being completely honest here, I don't think whatever's in that pool helps much, either."

"That's _probably_ because there's chlorine in there!" she shouts and slaps your shoulder, making you cringe. "I told you like, _ten times_ that if you want to swim you can't use the pool in the complex, oh my god. That shit is like poison to fish!"

"I'm not an actual fish, Rox."

"I can't believe I never even noticed how dry the ones one your neck are. How come they don't look this bad?"

"I think the fact that they're not stuck under my shirt all days helps, but uh, they're still pretty—"

"Wait here, I'll be right back," she says and squirms her way around you to get off the bed and disappear out of the room. You groan and fall back onto the mattress, draping an arm over you eyes just a little too dramatically. This is exactly what you wanted to avoid, her freaking out over nothing (at least you _hope_ it's nothing) and having to once again strike out with finally getting some concupiscent attention after all those long nights of her staying late and sometimes even overnight at the lab, leaving you to wait and twiddle your thumbs back at the apartment.

Frigglish meows at you from his little nest on top of the dirty clothes bin. You sneer back, trying to telepathically warn him that nobody will ever find his body if he comes anywhere near you right now with those razors Roxy calls claws of his while you don't even have so much as a shirt on to defend yourself.

Roxy comes back almost fifteen minutes later, an small worn pot in one hand and green rag in the other. When she sits on the edge of the bed and waves for you to scoot down, you nod at the things she'd brought and ask, "What's all that for?"

"Don't worry about it; mama's gonna fix you right up," she sings and sets the pot onto the ground at her feet. It's hard to see what's inside from this angle, but you can definitely smell water.

You stop her before she dips the rag in. "Hey, hold on, is that tap water? Cause I said—"

She shushes you, rubbing comforting circles on your chest with her free hand. Now is _not_ the time to start purring, god dammit. "It's not tap water. I took a few bottles of the spring water from the fridge, heated them up on the stove and added some salt. See?" She dunks the rag and wrings it out before holding it near your nose so that you can smell the salt. You do. "I know it's not like real salt water or anything but it's gonna help a lot, okay?"

You hum in annoyance and spread your arms out so that they're not in the way. "Alright, sure. Not like I have much of a choice, anyway."

She laughs. "Great, now hold still..."

"Wait, wait,"

"What?"

"We can still do it after this, right?" you ask, wriggling your brows so that she knows just what you're talking about. "I mean, we're already pretty much half naked..."

She chuckles and rolls her eyes. "I'm thinking you should probably rest."

You groan.

It takes you by surprise when she presses the washcloth to your side, and you pull your muscles taught at the sting of the salt as she dabs carefully at your gills. It's a bit uncomfortable at first since they'd gone so long without proper care and moisturization, but the initial pain is gone in a couple of seconds and your eyelids flutter shut with the instant sense of relief.

"You doing alright down there?"

"Not exactly how I was planning on spending the night but I'm not complaining," You wince at the initial sting once more as she leans over to take care of the other side.

She dunks the rag and wrings it out again. "Okay, I'm not gonna lie; this is probably gonna suck balls but it's got to be done."

"Huh? What are— _ah_ , hey!"

"Sorry," she apologizes with a choked-back laugh as she runs the rag gently along the inflamed skin between your gills. You squirm uncomfortably beneath it, but it's over soon enough. It doesn't take nearly as long to deal with the gills on your neck, and thankfully it's a lot more bearable, too.

"So how's that feel, Cro?" Roxy's fingers carding through your hair brings you to crack your eyes open just enough to see her watching you with a warm smile. You push yourself upright and plan to gripe a bit more about how you'd of been completely fine if she'd of just left your gills alone and how it totally sucks that she's put you on some sort of _sex probation_ because of them, until you toss your t-shirt back on and find that it doesn't chafe against them like it used to and that it's considerably more _comfortable_.

" _Wow_ ," You drag your fingers down your clothed sides—carefully, of course—and are astonished at how much that actually _doesn't_ hurt. "Huh."

"Cro?"

"That, uh. That really helped a great deal," you admit and scratch nervously at the back of your neck. You kind of feel like an idiot for complaining so much now. "Thanks, Roxy."

Roxy grins and tosses the rag down into the pot before leaning over to press a kiss to your temple. You were going to try and get her to catch your lips instead, but you figure you've already been enough of a pain in her ass for the past half hour.

"You don't have to thank me for taking care of you, babe; it's part of the job description. Besides, you take care of me whenever _I_ get sick, don't you?" she laughs, and you know she's being one-hundred percent serious but you can't help but think your skills aren't exactly up to par when it comes to looking after her whenever she catches one of her weird human colds; hell, you can't even make a decent can of chicken noodle soup and you never buy the right cough medicine. So you just nod, slightly embarrassed and ashamed of yourself.

"I guess."

"And don't worry—I'm gonna go down to the front office and talk to someone about getting a salt water tap installed in the shower first thing tomorrow morning. Gotta keep those frilly gills of yours healthy," she pokes you in the side right above them and you chuckle. "Hopefully I can convince them to switch out using chlorine for salt in the pool, too. I mean, there's got to be other seadwellers living in this complex and it'd only be fair, right?"

You shrug. "I dunno, but you really don't gotta do that for me, doll. Honest."

She doesn't listen. "Keep your Saturday open, btdubs. We're gonna head out to the beach."

"Rox—"

She cuts you off with a kiss, and that's something you can't complain about. "You know, actually... if you're still feeling up to it, I think you can handle a little bit of fun," she whispers and plays with the bottom of your t-shirt. You should probably be excited to hear that—it's what you've wanted to do for the past two damn weeks, hasn't it?—but you can't bring yourself to do anything other than wrap your arms around her and pull her to your chest, making the both of you fall back onto the bed. The purring that follows her surprised laughter is inevitable at this point.

"I'm so fucking flushed for you, Roxy. I love you so much," you mumble with your face buried in the crook of her neck, because she's so good to you and you're too embarrassed to say it to her face after all the trouble you'd given her. You're selfish and you know that you probably don't deserve her, but you'll be damned if you ever give her up.

You don't think you'll ever have to worry about having to though because she _mmm_ 's in response, this little half-hum she does when she's content, and you know that she loves you too.


End file.
